Pittsburgh: Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have
developed and refined a blood test that could help clinicians identify
infants who may have had bleeding of the brain as a result of abusive
head trauma, sometimes referred to as shaken baby syndrome. The science
behind the test is described today in JAMA Pediatrics.The serum-based test, which needs to be validated in a larger
population and receive regulatory approval before being used in clinical
practice, would be the first of its kind to be used to detect acute
intracranial hemorrhage, or bleeding of the brain. Infants who test
positive would then have further evaluation via brain imaging to
determine the source of the bleeding.